By Steve Klamkin WPRO News

Americans signing up for a driver’s license or registering a vehicle would be automatically registered to vote, under legislation introduced by Congressman David Cicilline (D-RI1).

Cicilline says his Automatic Voter Registration Act would significantly expand ballot access for eligible voters.

“We should be celebrating our democracy by ensuring everyone can participate easily and we no longer should have barriers that currently exist,” Cicilline said Monday at a news conference in the Rhode Island Secretary of State’s Elections Division office in Providence.

Cicilline said those who wish could opt-out of being automatically registered to vote. He and Secretary of State Nellie Gorbea (D-RI) said about 200,000 people in the Registry of Motor Vehicles database in Rhode Island are not currently registered to vote, and Gorbea said the technology already is in place to provide for automatic voter registration.

“If we have the information, or we’re collecting the information that somebody who’s already a citizen and is turning 18, then why not just assume that then that person is eligible to vote? Why put them through that extra hurdle,” Gorbea asked.

Also backing the measure was fellow Rhode Island Democratic Congressman Jim Langevin (D-RI2) and Jane Koster, President of the League of Women Voters of Rhode Island, a nonpartisan political organization.